Henry George’s Protection or Free Trade was subtitled “with Special Regard to the Interests of Labor.” Yet this book and his free trade stance alienated both the unions and the Irish immigrant workers who had been his core supporters. Today, the book is popular with conservatives and Neo-libertarians as a defense of conventional free-trade policies. While both get him wrong, George’s bold stance on Free Trade, controversial as it is, may hold the key to securing prosperity without tariffs.

In this two-part lecture series, Dan Sullivan will present the background context and lead a discussion of the book, beginning with Chapter 26 (True Free Trade), and then proceed through all the subsequent chapters, from Chapter 19 onward, to establish labor’s interests.

Those who are interested in getting ahead of the discussion can look at the following links:

Terence Powderly asks to focus on land value tax and take on protectionism only after the land tax victory is won.

http://www.savingcommunities.org/docs/powderly.terence/30years08.html#cure-all

Maria Mazzenga and Dan Sullivan on the interactions between Henry George, Terence Powderly, Father Edward McGlynn (video). https://vimeo.com/48893598

Protection or Free Trade, chapter 26, “True Free Trade.” https://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/1652#lf0448_head_027

Instructor: Dan Sullivan

Dates: Part 1: Mondays: 9/08, 9/15, 9/22, 9/29, 10/06; Part 2: Mondays – 10/20, 10/27, 11/03, 11/10, 11/17

Time: 6:30 PM – 7:30 PM ET

Location: Online via Zoom

Using Brett Christopher’s Rentier Capitalism as reference, this course explores the inordinate power and wealth of large corporations to monopolize and monopsonize markets in order to maximize and extract economic rent.

Though the course material focuses on rentierism in the UK … still reeling from Thatcherite privatizations of state-owned enterprises in the 80s to present day, common to all this is the giveaway and privatization of billions of dollars-worth of economic rent prevalent in Western economies today. The course underscores the importance that George gave to the control of monopolies, beyond simple land value taxation.

Recommended text available at https://www.amazon.com/Rentier-Capitalism-Owns-Economy-Pays/dp/1788739728

Instructor: Dr. Marty Rowland

Dates: Part 1: Wednesdays – 9/03, 9/10, 9/17, 9/24, 10/01; Part 2: Wednesdays – 10/08, 10/15, 10/22, 10/29; Monday – 12/08

Time: 6:30 PM – 7:30 PM ET

Location: Online via Zoom